1 Kings 11-12

To get a handle on this week’s passage (1 Kings 12) in our Age to Age: The Big Story of God’s Faithfulness series, we need to understand some background (1 Kings 11).  A summary follows, but you would be well served by reading 1 Kings 11-12 for yourself as we start this week (estimated reading time is 5-6 minutes for each chapter … c’mon, you can find 10 or so minutes for this, right?).

Last week we visited what is probably the high point of Old Testament history, the dedication of God’s Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon.  God’s people are settled in the Land of Promise.  Their capital city of Jerusalem is now adorned by the king’s royal palace and the Temple.  God has granted Solomon extraordinary wisdom, established him as king, and granted peace, prosperity and great fame to his kingdom.  Most importantly, God has “taken up residence” in the Temple, the LORD dwelling, as promised, in the midst of his people.

Within a decade or two, it all falls to pieces.  In his later years, Solomon, who has enjoyed the greatest blessings from God of any of Israel’s kings, including his father David, forfeits it all.  He gives his heart to many women, and then gives his heart to the gods they worship.  He begins to rely more and more on forced labor for his construction projects.  By the end of his reign, he has built temples to the pagan gods Chemosh, Molech and Ashtoreth, thereby violating Commandments 1, 2 and 3 (and in the process likely violating 5, 6, 7 and 10 as well).

Solomon had promoted Jeroboam, a young up-and-comer in his court.  The promotion goes to Jeroboam’s head, he begins to act like a rival to Solomon’s son and heir Rehoboam, and he eventually has to flee to Egypt because Solomon has decided to eliminate this rival to his son.

Upon Solomon’s death, as Rehoboam prepares to take the throne over all Israel, Jeroboam returns from Egypt.  There is a tense meeting, the result of which is that the kingdom splits in two.  Jeroboam and the ten northern tribes separate and form what came to be called “Israel” or the Northern Kingdom.  Rehoboam is left with the tribal groups of Judah and Benjamin, which came to be known as “Judah” or the Southern Kingdom.

Where is the faithfulness of God in all this human scheming, intrigue, machination and manipulation?

God is first and foremost faithful to himself, to who he is: holy, good, true, compassionate, gracious, merciful – and righteous and just.  When we live aligned with who God is, when we, within the limits of our humanity, live in the light of who God is, we experience God’s faithfulness as blessing, as shalom.

When we, like Solomon, like Rehoboam, like Jeroboam, allow ourselves to drift from what we know God has said to us and called us to be and to do, when we play fast and loose with God’s Word, when we seek the counsel of everyone other than the Lord, when we take God’s good and gracious promises as license to pursue our own agendas, we experience the faithfulness of God as judgment.

No, not every difficult situation we face is a sign of God’s judgment.  But if we find ourselves troubled by circumstances that seem to indicate that God is not faithful, perhaps we should take a few moments to check on our faithfulness to the God who really is, always and only, faithful.